Non-meta raid compositions

Hello,

I have heard that some people run very different squad compositions compared to meta 5-5 composition. Id like to see what they are actually running and I would like to hear why they have chosen the composition they are using.

Just to make sure we are on the same page by meta composition i mean:

Party1: Mesmer, Warrior, Druid, 2x DPSParty2: Mesmer, Warrior, Druid, 2x DPS

Well, I'm not sure people are running non-meta on purpose. We know for some fights its better not to bring one thing or another as well. When I was raiding we were running 8 people, so we didn't have two slots. We had a single chrono, a single warrior, and a single druid. The rest were dps and we made a few gear changes to make buffs last longer. The dps was lower but what you ended up with was a comp that could safely clear Wing 1-2-3 without problems. The dps also depended on the fight, tempests for gors, condi engi and rev for VG. Necro (Back when it was broken) for sabatha.

It's possible to clear the raids in all sorts of ways with all sorts of comps. I think we've just found the 'most effective' way to distribute boons and raise dps to the highest it possibly can.

I don't know groups that deviate too much from this. Some groups like to swap a dps to a kiter rev for cairn, to bait the auto attacks away from the group, but this is rare. You always swap a dps to kiter rev for deimos. And then occasionally I have seen groups swap a dps to healer ele or kiter rev for Matthias, so that one healer could focus on escorting well runners.

As for something like druid,chrono swapped to firebrand,ventari rev, I have not encountered any groups use it yet. There have also been times where it is better to replace the second ps warrior with a might stacking ele, and have the first warrior take both banners. Those situations are all gone now however, due to warrior buffs and ele nerfs.

It is worth noting that even ignoring the choice in the dps roles, in the 5-5 comp you listed there is a fair amount of variants in the support roles. Chronos could be zerker/commander or minstrels, druids could be viper or magi. Chronos themselves are swapping traits and even traitlines frequently. Druids can run either staff/warhorn or staff/staff, although there is little reason to ever run staff/staff from what I understand.

Our static hasnt run in a while but we usually drop 1 chrono and 1 PS. Works fine. Usually end up bringing condi rev depending on the fight, or an extra kiter/utility.

Some interesting ideas here. Sub par to meta, but most good static groups do not need to go meta to clear. :)

@GhostApi.8902 said:Some interesting ideas here. Sub par to meta, but most good static groups do not need to go meta to clear. :)

any clue as to what gear he is using? I know that's the support renegade they have been testing but haven't seen anything in relation to gear so assuming its the same as condi, just swap legends?

Swap legends and swap Devastation for Salvation 3-3-1.

There was this thread on reddit on a non-meta composition which was better for Mursaad: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/75qw80/new_possible_composition_in_raid/?utm_term=9a199e02-bbd8-44bd-baec-142c2feea143&utm_medium=search&utm_source=reddit&utm_name=Guildwars2&utm_content=41

Basically they do one classic group with Chrono/Druid/PS Warrior, and another more exotic one with Firebrand (quickness) / Ventari Renegade (Heal + Alacrity) / Soulbeast (Spirits).

Well, now any composition that runs Scourge is non-Meta. Condition Scourge now benchmarks lower than condition Reaper.

One of my statics runs a heal ele on many bosses, so our comp looks like:Party 1: cps, chrono, 2x dpsParty 2: cps, chrono, 2x dpsParty 3: druidParty 4: heal ele

This makes things a lot easier because the heal ele keeps soothing mist on us and can heal in a wider area than druid. It tends to be good on stuff that moves a lot, or requires people to spread out. It tends to be bad on stuff with a high dps check because it adds no dps. Specific fights that I like it are VG, Sloth, Matt, Cairn.

There was also a comp that showed up on reddit a while ago that we'd been messing around with. I have a heal renegade with altruism runes for fury uptime, and we took 2 firebrands in dps gear that just went a little bit into quickness. We completed the subsquad with a cps and 1 dps (I think soulbeast is best). This is a little more restrictive, and we're not entirely sure how to optimize it, but it can work if you can't find a 2nd chrono.

Kitty doesn't run in any statics, but she once had a fancy almost-metaless run at VG with pugs. We had the usual chronotank, but for heals we had a healer tempest and herald. Chrono gave the alacrity+quickness to squad 2 and healer herald and Kitty's condi-firebrand to squad 1. No warrior or druid boofs. The squad wasn't quite experienced, some ppls trying to get their first kill. Regardless, it went way smoother than with many "experienced" groups Kitty's pug'd with, we got the kill on 3rd try.

Here's a vid about that run.